The Unicorn and the Spider: KikyoNaraku ficlets
by paynesgrey
Summary: She was once a pure and holy miko, now tainted in an undead life searching for revenge. He was the one who soiled her life with hate, the reason she lost her true love. Together they would hate, desire, and long for one another.
1. Unicorn and Spider

AN: This is the beginning to a bunch of drabbles and one-shots for one of my favorite pairings: Naraku and Kikyo. Hope you like them!

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**Title: The Unicorn and the Spider**

**Theme: Longing**

**Pairing: Naraku/Kikyo**

**Rating: PG**

**Genre: Introspective**

**Word Count: 478**

**Squicks: None, really…unless you don't like the pairing**

Summary: _For as long as her knew her, she was nothing less then kind, pure, and holy, and to see her teeter over a fine line of dirty hate and clean kindness sent shivers within the recesses of his nerves._

Here she was, trapped and intertwined between the captive bones of Naraku's clutches. His outstretched arms, sent forward to either embrace her or impale her, had become her prison.

Her spiritual light glowed fiercely holy, resonating with the rising volume of fury that reflected in her eyes as she met his gaze.

Oh! If she only knew what that angry look did to him.

For as long as her knew her, she was nothing less then kind, pure, and holy, and to see her teeter over a fine line of dirty hate and clean kindness sent shivers within the recesses of his nerves.

But in this new life, she was not so holy, yet he was curious to know why her powers were still so strong.

Naraku licked his lips as he stared at her, struggling to compose herself within the self-made prison wherein he caged her. She was his delectable meal prepared only for him.

Kikyo had been once such an untainted wight, her pale white skin glowing from her internal power. He reminisced in the fluid motions of her dainty hands as she had cared for him when he was the thief.

He imagined her running freely with unicorns; yet now, in this cursed life, her horn had been broken.

He smiled deliciously as her pure arrow shook within the grasps of her furious hands.

Her desire for vengeance upon him had undoubtedly consumed her, unleashing a black ooze of rust and filth that seeped slowly over her once pure heart.

Would she exact her revenge before she became thoroughly tainted?

Oh, how he wished he could see that day. Her wholly evil laugh would be music to his ears.

Letting her arrow fly, the jaded unicorn escaped the spider's web. Her prison crumbled around her, and her captor only grinned at her as he floated away in pieces.

She seemed to think that he rather enjoyed getting a taste of her power, whether he was dismantled or not. Within those deep violet eyes of unspeakable evil, she would have shuddered at the thought his of rampant obsession of her, yet she did not waver from this knowledge. His obsession with her became her power over him, and deep in the abyss of her empty dispassionate core, she was intrigued, enticed, and enthralled to know such a creature yearned for her.

He would try to kill her. He would try to capture her. He would try to possess her.

He wanted her life as much as she wanted his.

She sometimes wondered how beautiful it would be to see him kneeling before her into submission before she sent the monster to the dark corners of Hades where he belonged.

Yet for now, they would wait on opposite ends, meeting only when their eyes of hatred and intrigue would draw them together and solidify this ominous bond.

FIN


	2. Kisses for a Doll

Title: Kisses for a Doll

Pairing: Naraku/Kikyo

Genre: Drama/Psychological

Squicks: Petting, implied sex

Word Count: 441

He never knew that a false body could be so smooth, so like the smoothness of real flesh that he pondered whether or not the artist of this mold was an imitation of God or the real thing.

Kikyo moved underneath his hands, inviting his touches. He swooped down and sucked on her collarbone. He started to wonder, could she really feel this?

Her unwavering eyes stared at the dank floor with chronic placidity. He would continue to question her role in this interlude; only he was somewhat relieved that she was somewhat responsive by the way her cracked lips slightly shaped into that frightening smile.

He couldn't help smile too, weak from the contagion of her presence. She arched to his touch, and her eyelids preventing him from truly seeing her truth, though it really mattered little to him. She was here, slowly filling the ache that bubbled in his dark heart, and she was tainted like he wanted her.

"You are not so pure," he jested, absorbing the carnal screams of his loins by pinning her down and landing his lips on hers.

She laughed darkly in his mouth. It wasn't just a kiss. The vibrations her audible amusement caused were reflections of her capricious and unnatural obsession of him.

Meeting him evenly, she responded stealing his wetness when she had none of her own. He opened his violet eyes for a moment, catching a glimpse of that spiteful smirk of hers before consuming it in a groan.

Teasingly, she stroked his foreign hands bustling in her kimono. Yet, she became bored with him quickly, severing the kiss that became the harbinger of their growing, yet murky alliance.

She met his gaze with the same vengeful resolve that she had always carried. He shivered. She kissed him lightly momentarily subduing his unease.

Her eyes seemed to tell him that she thought he was too weak.

"And you, are not so evil, Naraku," she challenged.

He gripped the back of her neck roughly by her hair. She seemed only startled briefly, but then her usual complacent expression molded into place. He knew he could dig his nails into her, rip her hair out if he wanted to, but she would feel no pain. She would probably laugh at him and call him pathetic, that whatever he would do to her, in love or anger, would never be rewarded with real reactions or emotions.

He moved closer to her once again, determined that this kiss would be the kiss to stir her. He had thought that about all the other kisses.

But he wanted more than anything to prove her wrong.


	3. Vintage Wine

Vintage Wine

Kikyo sighed neutrally as he took her hand. She knew he was staring at her again with strange embers of memory flicking in his eyes.

"Do you remember?" he said; his voice had always been sharp and the darkest hue of silk. Although, over decades his voice had lost its harshness and turned into a warm sort of mellow. She thought of him as a mad biting cat that finally had given in to austere melody of life, dropping the malicious façade and purring reluctantly to obscurity.

She would have thought that after all this time together, memories would be meaningless to him as they were to her, that the past would just eat itself away.

She almost cried knowing it would not. The reason they were here together now, in this time, was an entity that's foundation stemmed from this cursed past.

One year she had called their life tragic and volatile. They had been enemies.

And when three more years went away, their life had reached a climax. She didn't even remember what the jewel really looked like anymore. Was it pink or black in the end? She almost forgot that she had loved someone, but then in turn had given up on concepts of love long ago, hiding at the prologue of her finalized fate.

Yet, somehow, by a power she had never even knew about, the thing she least anticipated bound them together.

Hundreds of years went by, and here they were, companions tied by physical need and the fear of loneliness without each other. Whatever plight had them at odds in the past had long faded away; they stayed together shackled by habit. Despite hate or love, trust or mistrust, they remained with each other by the comfort of familiarity.

She looked out the window to the starch black sky pricked with pulsing stars. The view had not always been this high up. She almost forgot that once they could walk on the ground and look up to the stars, not meet them at eye level. Yet things were different in this time like all the other times. Automobiles whizzed by her view flying on science and fumes a little lighter than air.

Inside the restaurant, Kikyo shivered as a thin, frozen draft whispered against her skin from an open door. Naraku promptly got up and covered her with his suit coat.

The waiter finally came to them, breaking away their usual muddy atmosphere.

To their side, he held out a bottle of wine.

Naraku smiled upon reading the year that it was made, flipping his long hair behind him. Kikyo rested her elbow on the table and watched him with tedium as his face lit up like an innocent child's.

"2021, what a good year! Don't you think so, Kikyo?" Kikyo smiled half-heartedly and nodded, merely not to distress the waiter with her normal complacent demeanor.

'1521, 1821, 2021 …What did it matter?' She looked at Naraku's content face as wine was poured gracefully into their glasses. She smiled weakly, letting go of some of the scratching that piggybacked her nerves. She slowly caved in, defeated by immortal monotony.

The Yesterdays didn't matter much anymore. The Tomorrows weren't that appealing much either. Even the Todays didn't stir much to move her ever-kinetic frame.

And over time, they had encountered and recycled every possible emotion together, and played out every possible scene. Memories meshed together like that same convoluted 10 minute dream she had of a girl who made a vague wish on a jewel, putting her and her companion here, snagged on an arduous unsaturated journey through endless future.

Naraku sipped the wine and closed his eyes in content. "You can almost taste the year here, Kikyo. Silly isn't it?"

Kikyo gave him a wistful glance and took the sip herself. The wine seemed bland to her, so much like the year it was made. She gave him a mechanical response. "Indeed."


	4. Prequel

Theme: Fate

Word Count: 605

Squicks: a little blood description

Summary: Even though he was a mere human, it was her duty to expel evil. This human was reeking of it.

Prequel

In her small spirit, she could feel the dispersal of tortured souls rise to the beyond. Her nose twitched at the rank smell of death in the air. She was drawn toward it, yearning to start her journey of righting the wrongs and vanquishing the evil otherworldly. She knew when her mother put on her white and red miko garb for the first time, that her life was never again going to be simple. She had a strong pure wave pulsing in her husk, knowing that her life's normalcy would disappear.

Walking down the hill, she caught wind of something ominous, but rather small in power and reeking coarsely of rotten karma. She kept her cool, trying not to gasp at the scene before her. Pity and anguish swelled in her stomach.

"What are you doing?" she asked the boy, nor more than fourteen years old and about five years older than she.

The boy was jittery, snapping his head to see who had caught him in the act. Kikyo looked down with wide eyes as she inspected the blood on his fingers. He was hunched over the body of a man, who had been apparently stabbed to death. The boy glared at her angrily with the knife in one hand and the coin bag of his victim in the other.

"Who are you?" he demanded, stalking toward her maliciously. Kikyo stepped back once, but then stood her ground. As the boy slowly came closer to her, her hand quivered to reach for an arrow in back.

"Did you do this?" she asked accusingly, with a tone of disappointment glazed over her voice. The boy made no motion to answer her; he was guilty as charged. Kikyo became somewhat frightened that he would come after her. She swallowed her fear, and held her head up high. Even though he was a mere human, it was her duty to expel evil. This human was reeking of it.

The boy saw Kikyo raise her weapon to him. He laughed at her and stood mere inches before her. The blood around him stifled her oxygen and she began to feel sick.

"What can you do, kid? You're just a little girl!" he mocked her.

"You are just a child as well," she retorted. She narrowed her eyes at him. "You must repent for what you have done. What is you name?"

He laughed, but then his face paled as he saw power surging at the end of her shaking arrow. On her face, he saw determination. Somehow, her purity was beginning to suffocate him. He groaned from discomfort and backed away. With power like that, he wondered if she could inflict incredible damage onto him.

He started walking backwards, and then turning away and setting off into a quick run. Kikyo yelled after him, still demanding his name.

He laughed, throwing her back a malicious smile. "Ha! You don't need to know my real name, girl! You can just call me Onigumo! But I guarantee, you'll never see me again!"

Kikyo sighed, and the fear that she had wrapped in her stomach faded away and transformed into a dormant mass. She looked down at the poor man who was brutally murdered and robbed, slightly aghast that such a young boy could do such a wicked thing. She wished she would never see such a horrid person again, and she wanted to hide from the truth that such darkness existed in humans.

However, the boy's sinister face, devoid of love and empathy, would continue to haunt her. It wouldn't surprise her if she indeed did see such evil again.


	5. Laughter That Speaks Demise

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 286

Squicks: A little violence

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**Laughter That Speaks Demise**

His laughter overwhelmed her, clawing the air from behind her and echoing through her frame. With narrowing eyes, she willed her body to move quickly, facing him as his dread hovered over her.

Kikyo had been too confident. The success swelling in his eyes was evident of that. The exchange of words was meaningless now. His tongue was biting, so sure that he would win. When his spikes knocked away her weapon, she felt anger swell at her own naïveté.

Naraku's heart was somewhere else, detached from him making him confident. She didn't have time to laugh at her own mistake. She longed for that crippling influence she had over him; now, it was shrinking under a mass of his growing zeal.

The master no longer had control over her pet.

With a gnashing touch, his spikes tore through her brittle shoulder. She fell backward, hearing his suffocating guffaws.

His laughter stung her like prophetic music that would sing of her demise.

She closed her eyes and smiled slightly, remembering a once-lover that did not slash through her but caressed her.

Dreaming of pre-dusk boat rides and silver hair, she closed her eyes and let her thoughts drown out the triumphant sounds of her violator.

His laughter could sting her ears, and his spikes could tear her like paper, but they could not subdue her emerging memories.

"Inu Yasha…" she whispered. Naraku looked down at her descending form into the ravine. His face sparkled darkly to victory. But somewhere far away within his detached heart, he felt an brush stroke of jealousy slash across his buried emotions.

His villain-side would celebrate, but his oppressed-heart would seethe as another man claimed the privilege of her last words.


	6. Substitution

Substitution

Theme: "Lies"

In her waking death, Kikyo had a constant craving for one thing, something she was denied when she was a living woman.

On a night besieged by unnatural smoky winds, she waited for his arrival. She heard his footsteps and turned around to meet him. She searched desperately for something in his shadowy face as he moved closer to her ethereal light.

When she saw his dark smile, she felt her illusion breaking.

"Do it," she half-snarled, half-begged. She would only take HIM in one way. His current smile was not the smile she desired.

As he complied, she watched as his malicious grin contorted into a gentle one. Together, their illusion morphed into completion after he stepped closer into the light of her hovering souls. In her mind, Inuyasha was before her, not the shape-shifting demon who was her greatest enemy and the one responsible for everything she had lost.

She outstretched her arms to him, seeing the familiar red clothing and silver hair that began to subdue her deepest ache.

When he held her in the shape of HIM, it became something she only had experienced in her dreams; and he would never hesitate to take her.

She could look into golden eyes and convince herself she was feeling the real thing.

Flesh slid together, and her body screamed in elation as she believed the only man she loved was lapping at her parts and wearing away her false body in their mutual pleasure.

She could visualize it even more as she imagined herself real again, feeling the same sensations as if she had blood and sweat.

And her partner grunted and created the only moisture that was shared between them, indulging in his own historic feelings for her that were hidden away so long ago in the deep.

She closed her eyes when she saw woven silk-silver that rained over her shape into curly raven tendrils. Out of his own ecstasy, the illusion was slipping, but she would not allow it to be so. She moved his dark hair as a blanket over her eyes as she strained to keep them shut among the deepest black. Once again, in her mind she would see silver as her fingers wove through dark violet. She would hear a witty cackle and sighs of joy instead of moans of dominance and dark utterances of arrogant victory.

But when she snuggled against him, she could not feel his heart beat. With that silent reality, there was a small murmur of truth among the lie. When she finally realized this truth, her energy would be exhausted, prompting her own slumber and once again feeding her continuing denial.

She knew that deep down she could no longer hold the real thing; that he now belonged to someone else. But to keep her life moving and her heart from gaining more fractures, she could tolerate a fallacy that mimicked HIM.

And Naraku was the only man she knew that could substitute the person for whom she wished.

FIN


	7. A Gift in Return

**Theme: Gift

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****A Gift in Return**

Kikyo screamed.

He had given her his poison, gift wrapped in his own maniacal laughter. She had been a fool to think she could affect him. His heart was elsewhere, and his malicious desires were raw, bubbling to the surface. He had nothing left within his hollow frame to keep him from wanting her.

She felt his power seep into her, an extension of himself that trickled biting whispers within the internal works of her unnatural limbs. She gasped and choked feeling more human as she felt herself dying, his ominous caresses grasping away more and more of the energy that stirred her.

Falling, the wind gnashed at her body and she felt herself errantly waiting for her body to shatter like glass on the surface.

And suddenly it didn't matter. It was all for nothing.

She had returned to this world to bring him to his end, and now she would not have that chance. For all of her hard work, the time spent to hunt him and squeeze his strength from the reminder that he'd wanted her had finally dissolved.

And the reward he had given for all her hard work and determination was nothing more than a piece of himself, echoing a final adieu absent of remorse. His greatest rival and the woman he once desired more than anything would meet her demise, and the greatest gift he could receive in return was that no one would come to save her.

She would die alone, fueling his pleasure that she didn't really matter to him or anyone at all.


	8. Faithful to Her Word

**Theme: Fear**

**Faithful to Her Word**

For all torment, suffering, and discourse that he had caused, the jewel had offered him a second chance – to be human.

While staring down at fragile hands filled with blood, tissue and bone, he realized just how vulnerable he was now, and not just physically.

His mind swirled in chaos, and he could feel the spirits of the dead weigh heavily over him like a tethered cloud.

Yet here he was. The demons within him were gone, completely disintegrated thanks to the wish by the miko of the future. And after all he had done, she had still shown him mercy.

Though he really didn't see how being human now was mercy. Naraku actually felt it was sort of a sick joke on her behalf. He punched the ground in anger, only to feel soreness on his knuckles from the impact. No, he certainly wasn't used to being human anymore – and he only had vague memories from Onigumo on what pain even felt like.

"Does it hurt?" a voice behind him asked. He turned around slowly, and he almost laughed at the sight of her. He sighed and leaned against the trunk of a tree.

"Kikyou."

"You're human now, aren't you? Kagome granted you humanity?" Kikyou asked. Her voice was still and unwavering, just as it always had been. She evoked neither confidence nor fear. Kikyou was a dense pool of placidity, and it unnerved him even now.

"Perceptive as always, Kikyou," he snarled under a mocked tone. "I trust you are here to congratulate me on my new found humanity? I bet you'd take pleasure in seeing the burden it causes me." She was silent for a moment and he paused. He looked into the stars on the clear night sky through the forest. It was peaceful, serene, and it inwardly enraged him. "This is unforgivable. I'm utterly powerless."

"Are you afraid?" she asked, though her once monotonous voice was now trickled with satisfaction.

"Are you afraid of dying?" he countered, changing the subject. He saw her walk over to him and stand in front of him while he sat. For the first time, he noticed her unending fortitude as she towered over him. She looked down at him like he was an ugly bug, just as she always had. It didn't matter whether he was a demon or human.

"No," she said simply eyeing him intently. "I long for death. There will come a day when I will have the justice I deserve and then gain peace." She cocked her head at him and smirked wickedly. He shivered as her dark eyes burned into him. "You of all people should know that."

He backed away. This thing called "fear" that humans had was rising within him, and he could not subdue it. He was not yet used to his human body or his new emotions. He felt a crippling pain throb in his chest. He swallowed and his tongue felt raw against the roof of his mouth.

"I don't care about you anymore, Kikyou," he lashed at her, feeling the bark of the tree dig into his back as he tried to get away. She knelt down and was very close to his face. She was no longer smirking, but her eyes were still laughing. "That part of Onigumo was dispelled long ago. I could care less about you. Now leave me alone."

Laughing. Her eyes were laughing at him! He hated it! He was really afraid. He hated being afraid. He clenched his fists at his sides. He would fight if necessary.

Kikyou noticed his tension and leaned back, settling onto her knees in front of him. Her dark disposition remained, but she feigned easiness. She looked around wistfully, and Naraku knew she was reveling in her control of him. He was only human, and he really could do nothing. He could try brute force, but it would be no use. Kikyou would have her arrows out in seconds, ready to strike.

"You know, Naraku, I don't really believe in Kagome's decision to spare your life," she said conversationally. He froze, and she caught his gaze again. Though he was only human, he could have sworn he felt her energy spiking. "You ask me about death and if I'm afraid of the day when it will come. Well, I believe that day is here."

He grunted. "So you're faithful to your duty and have come to collect. It doesn't matter if I'm human, that I've been granted a second chance."

"Correct. The meaning of my resurrection had one purpose ..." She stared at him hard. There were no more games, no more cockiness, and certainly no more wistfulness. Kikyou's intentions were nothing but business now.

"I knew it, you cold-hearted bitch!" he yelled getting up quickly. In spite of it all, the only thing he could do now was run. It may be futile, but he could run or he could stand there and die. He didn't know that standing there and taking her arrow would be more honorable.

Of course, Naraku never knew anything about honor.

Though Kikyou wouldn't shoot him in the back, he was still easy prey. He could run all he wanted because eventually she would find him. She would find him and vanquish him when he least expected it. And he would live in fear until then.

Kikyou watched Naraku's form descend within the forest, and she let a small smile creep onto her lips. Of course, finding and destroying Naraku now would be a lot easier than the last time.

The End


	9. Stealing the Meaning of Sunsets

Theme: Sunsets

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**Stealing the Meaning of Sunsets**

He murders children during sunsets, and all just for her. He knows that it will stir her, and makes his instructions perfectly clear to his servants – to search for fragments of the jewel when the sky is red and the villages are full of laughter. And they do, swooping in like nightmarish shadows when children are ready for bed.

Then she comes late, when the red sky is far gone and replaced by violet. She sees the carnage, hears the silence of the living and feels the vengeance of the dead. She will always be too late, but he lays the path out perfect for her, following the cycles of the sky.

He knows that she loves sunsets, and thus he presents such gifts to her.

He remembers, even in this new body.

When she cared for him in that other life, he watched her as she dreamed of sunsets, her heart pulled into the loving thought of a boy. He recalled, lying there, watching her as all he could do, as her eyes would look far away, and her perfect white face would contort in a small smile of delight – all because she came late in the afternoon, anxious to treat him and leave.

She would always want to leave quickly because she had somewhere important to go, someone to meet. And he couldn't help but think of how wonderful would it be to turn that delighted smile into a contortion of anguish, to steal her precious sunsets away from her.

And that is why he kills children on sunsets. Because she comes, and now thinks of him, and no one else whenever she sees the red sky. In this life, sunsets mean something different – sunsets are nothing to smile about. He makes it so.

Then, she searches for him, and in the shadows he grins as she frowns, looking around the smoky ruins and corpses of innocents. It pleases him, and even more so to hear his name spill from her lips in contempt.

"Naraku," Kikyou hisses, and then he feels it, the small fading joy in her soul.

Yes, sunsets are still special to her, but not because of cherished memories of someone else, but because of him.


	10. Almost

**Theme: Hope**

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**

**Almost**

A disgusting bundle of threads – a laughing shiver – and Naraku encased her in a web of arms.

She'd rather die then be taken by the enemy – the horrific face of cruelty, the master of poisoned time.

She'd rather die then be held so closely to him.

She had been so careless! How could she have been so sloppy as to end up in Naraku's spider webs – caught and absorbed into his submission – her hands just out of reach of hope?

_Kagome's coming. She'll bring me my bow._ Kikyou couldn't believe she had such confidence in the girl. But she _had_ to …

She had no idea where Kohaku was – if he was even still alive. The ambiguous glint – the glazed confidence in Naraku's eyes would have indicated otherwise – if he actually were to be trusted.

Inuyasha… 

And then she felt even more foolish – wrapped up in the enemy's arms calling for her lost lover now with another – the 'other' that was her only hope. But Kouga's shards may be able to still do _something_ – but how long would Midoriko play them?

She felt her eyelids fall heavy – darkness was bleeding into the corners of her eyes.

Kikyou didn't want to be defeated. She didn't want to think this was it – she had to be the one to kill Naraku. She _needed_ too …

She certainly didn't want to wander in limbo from a failure to find revenge, trading once sense of unrest for another.

Weakness surged through her body, her energy waning, Naraku could sense it when she was about to fall. _Damn him!_

His power was overtaking her – she felt blanketed and cocooned in miasma, binding and choking her with his nature, his torrent intentions of malevolence. Ruby eyes looked over here – soaking in her defeat, delighting in her inevitable downfall. His power tightened around her caging her like his victory bird.

I cannot submit… 

She couldn't let go.

I have nothing more to do but this… 

She couldn't let him win.

_But I'm…tired._

She couldn't give him the satisfaction.

Darkness finally consumed her sight, and Naraku gave her a smile of satisfaction – the smile of a winner.

And then it was shining – hope – becoming a beacon of a strangled day that set hero against villain and heart against mind.

"Naraku…don't you dare touch Kikyou!"

Then, Naraku became an almost-winner.

Kikyou smiled as her partial soul felt warmth.


	11. Buzz

**Title:** Buzz  
**Pairing:** Naraku/Kikyou  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Theme:** Death  
**Spoilers/Warnings:** Chapter 457-ish  
**Summary:** Death called to him in the shape of righteous imprisoning eyes.

Naraku/Kikyou "Death" shard

Buzz

She was dead – for certain this time, and Inuyasha's grief and her absent power in the breeze was proof enough of that.

With her death, his longing was gone – for the most part. And although she was _physically_ gone, memories of her, thoughts of her, and conversations of her had pricked at his skin – distracting him like an itch. Kikyou, the priestess who had caused him so much adversity, was finally dead and somehow, he couldn't be completely satisfied.

How could anyone forget such grace, such beauty – such fortitude?

His bones resonated with his hot blood. Her memory became the fly that buzzed in his ear.

She was dead, but he could feel her waiting across that line where death and life converged, hovering in place with that same smile on her face, dark and knowing.

_"Soon, we'll see each other again. Soon."   
_  
It wasn't the sort of tender tones a departed lover proclaimed to another. The words echoed in his head subtlety, bubbling to the surface – coating his fate with his own poison.

Departed or not, the miko knew his time was sick. Death called to him in the shape of righteous imprisoning eyes.

Scythe in hand, Kikyou knew well; she was patient.

She had no reason to doubt Death because after her, Naraku would be next.


	12. Violet Rain

**Naraku/Kikyou**

**Prompt #13: "Rain"**

**Rated: PG**

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Violet Rain

She walked onward into an era that was a generation ahead, a time no longer hers, and charged with vengeance that already sealed her soul and seared her into a post-mortal fate.

She opened her eyes, took her first unnatural breath, and her most precious thing was already gone – taken away from a monster that lusted for her with ruby eyes and tore at her memories like claws through flesh.

The heavy violet rains poured over her, clinging to her skin and creeping into old wounds. She looked ahead and her lover was already walking away – a frail string held them together through pain and duty and a love that was nevermore.

It was already done. He had already won – then. And everything dear was already washed away with the torrent rain. Her sorrows splashed onto the soaked ground below.

The first time he touched her, he was already inside, sinking into her pores and bleeding into her blood. The first time she touched him, lust fueled his broken life and sang like the cackling wind.

Devils couldn't resist such music, such potential for game.

Still set in motion, she walked along an unraveling thread of redemption, and his demise was forever out of her reach.

But she grabbed for it anyway.

And when the rains slowed, the fog lifted to her knees. Her false toes squished the sullied earth below. The rains ended. The song ended. And vengeance was long overdue.

Kikyou knew she would not make it. She had always been caught in his winding web, doing all she can, forced to trust those she couldn't trust.

"The end is near for you, Kikyou," he crowed in the air. The fog lifted over her head, and she squinted her eyes into the purple mist. Pain accosted her frame, and her soul burned – struggling to free itself from this tired trial.

But for as long as she could, she would continue to stand and meet him. Looking onward through the thick haze, she clenched her jaw and followed the sound of laughter through the poisoned fog.

Damnation clamored at her heels.

**AN: Nominate your favorite Inuyasha fanfictions for elite awards! Check us out at the Shikon Awards on Livejournal. Details and the link are on my profile page. Thanks!**


	13. Kiss to Kill

AN: Written for forthrightly's "Perfect Kiss" challenge and fitting it into the "soul" prompt for 30shards. Word Count: 100

* * *

**Kiss to Kill**

Dark. So deliciously dark. He chuckled against her mouth, her sweet-soiled taste – her simmering power – were all his with a flick of her tongue, a suckle on her gums.

She bent up, grabbing his laughter with hers, stealing his wetness for hers, and taking in his power – smoldering and suffocating it. She nibbled on his lip, and his impatience grew with fervor, his tongue grasping for hers.

His heated desire for her ascended, and she waited and plotted and kissed. He could take as much as he wanted, and she would bleed inside him – kiss to kill his damnable soul.


	14. Spur

**Theme:** Whispers

**Warnings/Spoilers:** Spoilers to chapter 508  
**Rated:** G-ish

Spur  
  
Beyond the dead, she still finds ways to mock him. He feels it inside him every day when he stares into the eyes of her incarnation - different, yet pulsing with the same glow.

"Get the bow and destroy it," he tells Hitomiko, yet she doesn't quite understand and she's not supposed to. She's not supposed to know it's not the bow he should be afraid of.

The far-gone miko's laughter whispers in his ears - haunting him and aching in his blood.

"Through her I'll get to you," Kikyou promises him. And he feels a ghosting bite on his psyche - a wound by her power that has already started to decay.

And then Kagome comes to him, calling him a coward and looking at him with those fiery eyes, and he knows that Kikyou is behind them. He's sure Hitomiko has no idea he's truly not worried by just the bow alone.

Kagome's power pulses, ready to unleash. He knows she's the real threat here. Kikyou is long gone, but her mission is still alive - opposing him through the young miko. He tries to deny it. There's no way the girl can defeat him; how could she even be a threat?

He swears he hears Kikyou laughing again, reminding him on what the truth really is.

Hitomiko is a poor attempt, falling by the wayside. It doesn't matter what body stood before him - the same soul would always spur his demise.


	15. Fair White

**Theme:** Water

**Rated:** PG

**Summary:** He could not move. She had bewitched him and knew that he was there.

Fair White

Her skin was so fair it was luminescent white. She splashed the water over her snow-colored flesh, glowing from the reflected moonlight through the dark trees. He watched her, and she hummed peacefully while she bathed. He supposed he was disturbing her - this private moment where the cursed, undead miko would wash her false body.

Yet the water still cascaded down her skin as if she were actually real. Once dead and dust, she was later revived, stalled in the amber wax of time. When she burst forth onto the world again, she was something wholly different, and she had a driven purpose that was born anew. She would come for him, kill him and take revenge for the sins he had committed - not only against her but against the world as well.

He heard her chuckle to herself, and he knew that she wasn't only laughing at an errant funny thought. Slowly, she lifted a damp cloth over her body, washing methodically and continuing to hum just a little louder than before. A knowing smile erupted on her face. The crisp, cold water of the stream fell over her skin again, and she closed her eyes and moaned sensually through her lips. She laughed again, and Naraku was ready to retreat. Though for some reason, he couldn't budge from his spot.

Kikyou had bewitched him, just as she had fifty years before.

And she knew - as always - that he was here solely for her.


	16. Uneven Spin

AN: Written for the "Karma" theme at 30shards on Livejournal.

"I'm a slave of Karma

Spin the Wheel and I'm a king reborn"

_Karma Slave_ by Splashdown

* * *

Uneven Spin

They were close. They were twins after all.

_"Don't worry, Kimmy. I'll protect you."_ He was full of promises, but with the dreams she'd had, she was sure he couldn't save her. Not from what she had seen. It had all been so _real._

And when she remembered the murders of a forgotten life, the guilt crashing down on her was not entirely her own, and she knew there was only one thing left to do.

Retribution; and beyond the uneven scales of her karma, she would deliver the sentence all on her own.

"Wait! Kimmy, don't do it!" her brother yelled at her. Nathan was running toward her, but she knew he'd never make it in time. She couldn't be saved, and she'd never have the courage to live out this life and endure the dreams she had every night - memories so agonizing and oozing with ancient blood.

Her feet teetered over the edge of the building. It was a long way down before she would catch one last scent of the asphalt under the bustling New York streets. She leaned, and she could hear her brother run up the stairs to the top. He was out of breath, and there was still some hope in his eyes that he was going to save her.

"Kimmy no! We can beat this! I can save you! I have something..." He paused with wide eyes. His hand reached out for hers on instinct; her leg had already slipped.

"I'm sorry, Nate. You can't save me. Not for what I've done." And she began to regret leaving him. His eyes seemed to shimmer pink with strength she never possessed.

"Forgive me. I'll meet you in another life. Maybe then I'll be stronger."

She closed her eyes, and the last things she remembered were his sunlight hair and chaste kisses. He meant to save her, but she'd never burden her brother with that. She would never waste his love.

Her eyes fluttered open when she felt something soft brush against her fingers. Her face paled as she realized he'd followed after her. He snubbed the cold wind and pushed himself against her, taking her into his arms.

She closed her eyes and felt the warmth she didn't deserve. She hoped in the next life they'd meet again, and then he'd be the one that finally gave her the justice she was due.


	17. Empathy

AN: Written for the "Friendship" theme at 30shards on Livejournal.

* * *

Empathy 

Her little sister scrunched her face in annoyance. Kikyou wanted to chuckle at her, but she kept calm. For Kaede's sake, she presented a confident demeanor, and she would not give in to feelings and adopt her sister's judgment toward Onigumo.

"Are you... friends with him?" Kaede asked her, her tone ringing with distaste. She picked up speed at Kikyou's side, looking into her face curiously. Kikyou smiled lightly and shook her head. Kaede appeared slightly relieved.

"Of course we are not friends, Kaede. I am just tending his wounds, so you mustn't worry. It is my duty to help those who cannot help themselves. That man will never walk again. His time on this earth is short, so I must try to make his passing comfortable." Kikyou ruffled her sister's hair and began walking back to the village, preparing to leave Kaede there and check on the battered thief once again.

Kaede pouted, looking ahead. "Well, okay. Just be careful." She tugged at her sister's sleeve. Her voice was low. "You're the only family I have."

Kikyou turned to her sister again; giving her a smile that she hoped would put her fears at ease. And if Kaede's worries were sated, Kikyou hoped that she could ease her own as well.


	18. The Last Festival

**AN: Written for 30shards on Livejournal for "Festival" prompt.**

* * *

The Last Festival

Smiling children run through the streets, their faces covered in masks of the Dragon. Kikyou wanders through the bustling crowd with strong feelings of joy seeping into her empathic senses.

She wishes she could be as happy as they are. It's a celebration, after all. Memories of the last New Year she celebrated stirs alive in her mind, and for seconds, she almost feels as though she isn't undead and stilled in time as she continues her search.

She senses Naraku's energy at this place, and she knows it's not residual. He's lingering in the cracks and shadows, waiting and chuckling. He's assessing the village, feeling out the energy of every human and youkai that passes by.

This village is special, and rumors suggest a fragment of the jewel is here. Kikyou surmises that an innocent human unknowingly has the Shikon fragment in his or her grasp. She knows that Naraku is aware of this too, and his fiery energy tapping at her senses shows that he's one step ahead of her – and he's excited.

His youki is recognizable, and she sees his miasma hovering over the villagers' ankles, ready to strike. Kikyou frowns. These poor, happy fools do not know true danger they are in, and she sees their inevitable deaths plainly within her sight.

She cranes her neck around, looking at the joyous village one last time. In another life, she might have tried to help them, and deep inside her soul she wants to save them.

But she's here for Naraku – and Naraku only.

Fireworks shoot into the sky, and they cry for the last minutes of the living human village. Her heel turns, and she's moving to the outskirts of the village for cover in the forest, hoping her exit will lead Naraku away from them – her small chance to spare innocent life.

Yet, he won't follow. She knows this.

And with the first cry, her eyes tight shut for a second, and she knows that he has shown himself. Acrid smoke fills her nostrils, and she can smell his destruction.

She turns around, and she's ready. Her bow and quiver are straight and assured in her grasp. She narrows her eyes, fazing out the screams of villagers running past her. Her soul stealers linger behind her, and she feels her invigorated false body sigh.

Her one and only prey is on the rise. So she steps up to hunt with haste.


	19. Of the Same

AN: for 30shards #22 Jewel theme.

* * *

Of The Same

He felt it - a new surge of power, a new tendon of flesh, pulsating with burgeoning miasma. He laughed to himself. He didn't even have to take this part of the Shikon jewel away from anybody, and though he was slightly disappointed he didn't murder anyone, he enjoyed how it easy it had been.

And where the piece had come from.

The beats of his old heart picked up, robust and as strong as ever. His new flesh glowed vibrant, and he inhaled his own scent deeply. There was no smell he loved more.

Except -

Her body was different, but in a way, she appeared the same. She _felt_ the same to him - regal and holy, but now tinted with a murmur of darkness that he prided himself on. He caused that lingering malice, and he took credit for the miko's tarnished soul whence she was free from the grave.

Together in death. Together in resurrection.

Excitedly, he purred against her skin.

"See, we aren't so different, are we, Kikyou?" He chuckled in the darkness. She glared at him, but a small smirk appeared on her face.

He trailed a finger down her skin, and then his tongue, and the entrapped miko remained motionless with a mystery swirling in her eyes.

Naraku knew Kikyou was hiding something, and whatever it was, he bet it was as delicious as the taste of her new, tainted flesh.


	20. In a Different World

AN: Dual themes: "Shikon no Tama" for 30shards and "Flower" for iywiltedrose, both on LJ.

In a Different World

He has an idea that he could have lived in a different world.

It could have been a world free of violence and destruction. It could have been a world of his healing, that maybe he could have lived longer as less than a man than more as a half-demon.

The idea is small, barely a glitter, but it's there.

His only problem is that he could never see it through well enough, and then, the jewel and his unfailing darkness smash any chance for any other life than this.

Onigumo has always been evil and terrifying. Loving a priestess could have taken that all away. There is no measurement on how badly he wants that.

The price of such a dream is one he only sees now when his enemies are celebrating his defeat.

It's foolish to think of such things right now, and he laughs at himself before his last moment into the dust.

_What a life that would have been…_

--

The village priestess Kikyou looks on him like no woman has looked at him before. He can't walk; he can't move, but she tends him and cares for him. She smiles, and Onigumo thinks she is perfect tribute to her name.

The bellflower: with an unusually beautiful blue blossom and a soothing scent.

He knows he could lay on his back forever and take in her face.

If only he could be content with only that. If only his thoughts didn't breed such darkness and perversion.

He is a forsaken man, and he is a stranger to the path of redemption.

Kikyou makes him strong though; he can keep the demons at bay just for one more glance of her.

--

He's started awake, and he thinks he is dreaming with he looks up at the priestess.

"Shh… do not be alarmed," she says, and he can't help but be surprised. There's anxiety written all over her splendid face.

"What's going on, priestess?" he inquires, and she says nothing. He can hear loud voices outside. The air feels tense, and Kikyou's behavior reflects the urgency.

"A strong demon attacked the village. He's looking for the jewel," Kikyou says. Then, Onigumo smells blood. He wishes he could rise to do something, but he knows his place. He can never walk or stand again.

Kikyou has a flesh wound in her shoulder, and she looks more perturbed than panicked.

"I need to try something."

She pulls out the Shikon no Tama from her robe, and Onigumo's eyes widen. Is she giving him the jewel? He has to restrain the demons that coo in his ear. He shushes them loudly to hear her next words.

She lifts the jewel over his body and begins to pray. Onigumo watches her face with awe; darkness is screaming inside of him, and the demons that plague him scratch at his insides, whining for him to take them in.

He won't; he can't. This is the most he's ever gotten with Kikyou in his life. She isn't here because of duty or pity. She's here because…

Pink to white light flashes inside the cave, and he closes his eyes from the blinding pulse. He grunts, and he hears Kikyou cry, and suddenly, there's nothing around them but white.

Onigumo feels the wounds inside his soul and bones thrum and cool from an auspicious balm. He sighs.

When he blinks open his eyes, he's no longer in the cave.

He's…

"Good, you're awake, Onigumo-san," Kikyou says, lightly pushing back the soft reeds hanging over the doorway. He looks around the hut and smells the strong pungent odor of incense.

"When you are ready, we will go for a walk." He watches the faint blush rise on her cheeks. She looks at him like he's a miracle.

"What did you do to me, priestess?" His voice is filled with awe and impatience. Kikyou chuckles and he relaxes.

"It was the jewel," the priestess says. "I never thought it could, but it gave you a second chance." She paused and looked at him critically. "I sensed a lot of darkness within you, but there's good there too, and apparently, it was stronger."

"Good?" he snorts. The idea seemed ludicrous! Onigumo, the thief, has never been called 'good'.

She bows, and he meets her eyes. Her once pale face and sunken eyes are gone, and she has color and vivaciousness in her expression. The burden of guarding the jewel is long gone once she made the unselfish wish and it disappeared.

"Do you still want to walk with me into the forest? I suspect after lying down so long you would want to get back on your feet again," Kikyou suggests.

Onigumo stares at her blankly, registering the events in his head.

It's impossible. It could never happen. It's the most unlikely thing in the world.

Being healed by the Shikon Jewel instead of corrupted by it?

That's when Naraku knows it is just a dream. His last final thoughts betray him, just as his heart did for the fallen priestess.

Unlikely or not, it is a good dream. He thinks it's undeserved, but he takes it anyway.

Maybe in his next life such a thing can become more real.

END


	21. Sideline Victory

AN: Written for the "Acceptable" theme at iywiltedrose and "Victory" shard on 30shards at Livejournal.

Sideline Victory

This body does not ground her, so she floats around like an autumn breeze. His evil is new and hungry, and takes root and soaks the ground with pollution far worse than the earth has ever seen.

Her life on this time may be transitory, but her soul is as ancient as the Winds. His body beats with organic life in a heart that will someday die. But she knows there's a chance he'll live longer – that the Shikon jewel could give him the power that she has, an immortal soul whether it stays or comes back and back again.

In the first hour of life and truth, she realizes what she must do, but the residue of misdirected hatred seizes too much precious time.

And within little pockets of moments she feels like a fool for hating him and hating her. It passes when redemption is expected of her. Feelings become of little importance in the wake of destruction.

The Beast that roots himself in the elements wakes her up with one intake of the darkest miasma. Vengeance calls on her from the directions of the cardinal winds.

And then she is back, in a manner of speaking, and every decision and thought she makes in this false life has a purpose and a price. Scheming and manipulating on her part brings a brighter end.

Karma owes her anyway.

But then she falls, and she plays it off like she means to. Some good is coming out of falling a few breaths short; a boy's life is saved. And if she can not be the hero who claims victory over the Beast, she at least serves her part as a peripheral catalyst.

Trust does not fail her; the burden shifts elsewhere. She lies until the Real End in her lover's arms.

To Kikyou, this is acceptable.

END


	22. Secrets from the Rain

AN: Done for the "Revenge" prompt at 30shards.

Secrets from the Rain

He has stalked her in the snow. He has attacked her within the gloom of night. He has taunted her in the blinding sunlight.

But he has never fought her in a storm.

It covers them like an expulsion of nature, and she growls his name under a cacophony of drowning rain. Her bow and quiver are as ready as his encroaching web. He chuckles at her, coming closer to her every second. She looks around in the darkness, her eyes a second too late to capture his position.

Mocking her is useless, but it is still amusing. He taunts her about the hanyou, her tragic death, and her unwelcome time in this world.

As always the question is the same. "If you have no heart, Naraku, what do you want with me? Revenge?" Her smile rivals his in its wickedness.

He comes close enough to taste the false skin on her neck. She is so inhuman she can't even shudder to the touch of his hot breath.

"Revenge," he whispers thoughtfully. She spins around to meet his gaze, and her arrow is pointed at the illusion of his forehead. He looks at her white skin and remembers how it once was – pure and so delicious he has dreams of running his mouth all over it.

"No," he answers her before he completely loses himself, and as always, her eyes seem to know his greatest weakness. He curses her just as before and retreats into the shadows.

He imagines her letting her guard down, but not for minutes until his scent is gone. He'd have to come back another day to kill her. Kikyou knows this as well.

And next time he will avoid the rain so his secrets are not scrubbed from him in a puddle at his feet.


	23. Color of the Moon

AN: Written for the "Moonlight" theme at iywilted rose on Livejournal, as well as 30shards "Jealousy" theme on Livejournal.

Color of the Moon

The moon is full tonight, and it casts a stark reflection on her lover's hair.

"Come," she whispers, and her hanyou comes forward, as if under a spell.

"Kikyou," he says, nuzzling in her hair and whispering against her neck. She holds onto them as if they'll have no more moonlight visits like this. He holds and kisses her and trails his lips down the juncture of her neck. She hears a possessive growl and closes her eyes.

With a smile, she looks up to the moon, full and bright, and more than anything, Kikyou hopes it brings fortuitous promises for their future.

--

There's blood on the moon, and she looks into the girl's desperate eyes and tries to let go of her jealousy and grief.

"Kikyou, please," she begs. The girl doesn't seem as scared as she should. Kikyou hopes she'd get frighten enough to go home and never return. Instead, the girl wants to understand her pain and empathize with her.

Kikyou scoffs and her soul stealers wrap around the girl tighter. She can hear the friction as they squeeze around her, constricting the girl's life force.

She moves forward and steals Kagome's jewel. She pushes away her sympathy to the leave the girl to a treacherous fall.

--

The night is absent of the moon, and the sky is dark and full of violet clouds. She's waiting for him, and the power of the jewel shards pulsates in her hands.

At the edge of the forest he comes, and he creeps toward her like a shadow of her misdeeds.

"Naraku," she says in a throaty snarl. She tries to stand her ground, but the evil hanyou has other plans.

He steals her away, and Kikyou begins to miss the silver moonlight. It cannot protect her tonight.


	24. Unwanted

AN: Written for the "Secrets" challenge at 30shards on Livejournal.

Unwanted

Murderers, Thieves, and Monsters aren't allowed to love. He doesn't know who's decreed this, but he's had plenty of people tell him – so much that he's come to believe it and live his life around it. He's never needed such things as love anyway.

He's burned a stain in the countryside trying to outrun his heart. He thinks it's completely useless. It only brings him pain. He strips himself of it, and he craves the Jewel in hope that its power will scrub away these lingering futile shadows forever.

Even removing his heart does not work. All that's left is his desire to complete the Jewel.

His mind knows something his heart will not accept. Kikyou will never love him; he's known this since he was still human and she cared for his wounds. Her kindness had always tempted his heart, and it's the reason he was pushed into this madness of lust for her. He's sold his soul _for_ her, but she doesn't know his real reason. It's his secret burden to bear.

Maybe she does know, but in all his tyranny, she's never suspected that his feelings for her weren't always twisted and impure.

He's had idle thoughts before, even in this hanyou form, of a different life where she's accepted him and they grow to be happy, to love one another, and to circumvent the darkness and demons that have spoiled him to the core.

It's too late to go back now and unravel this bloody tapestry he's already woven. He's betrayed and harmed her enough that she hates him beyond death. She uses his feelings against him without a flicker of remorse.

This Kikyou is different. This is not the one he remembers, but he loves her just as well.

For this reason she needs to die. And when she's truly dead by his hands, everything he's ever felt about her will fade away. The only thing left will be a hole, soon encompassed by his ever-invading darkness.

This is the only way Naraku knows how it can be.


	25. Too Cold to Dream

AN: Written for the "Dream" theme at iywiltedrose on LJ, as well as the "Weapon" theme at 30shards on LJ.

Pairings: Naraku/Kikyou, Inuyasha/Kikyou

Rating: PG

Too Cold to Dream

She was a weapon, a tool for the Shikon no Tama. Kikyou knew this well. Whenever she picked up her bow and arrow, she was reminded every time.

Her ultimate goal also reminded her. Kill Naraku – and she would be the instrument of his death, to make the Shikon jewel whole again and destroy him to get her revenge.

However, she was torn. Though she was a tool in this life and in her un-death, she still had the feelings of a woman. Weapons were used for force and aggression, yet her heart and dreams had secretly filled her with hope and love.

She dreamed of _him_, her lover that she had lost. He gazed at her with golden eyes and stroked his thumb down her cheek. His voice was soothing when he said, "You're not a weapon, Kikyou. You're a woman." Then she'd fall against his chest and feel at home there.

But the dream would disappear, and she'd be staring into the red eyes of her greatest enemy. She'd ready her bow and aim the arrow. Her jaw tensed, and her finger burned against the trigger. The power of the fractured shards Naraku held sang to her the only song she could hear.

"Die Naraku!" she screamed, and in her clay body she felt so cold, so determined.

She was a fierce weapon, and the arrow fired and pierced through the purple smoke, slashing at her futile dreams that dispelled into the blackened wind.


	26. Foresight

AN: Written for the "Legend" prompt at 30shards and "Gift" prompt at iywiltedrose on LJ.

Foresight

She gives him pieces of the jewel voluntarily, and for a moment Naraku thinks she's on his side. But Kikyou is not. She has her own purpose for giving him the jewel. Her intention is as clear as her wicked smile.

"I know you're not a fool, Kikyou," he says, baiting her.

"When you complete the jewel, Naraku, I will kill you," she says it so emotionless and assured, that the demons inside him clamor to challenge her. He only smirks.

"I will become a legend before that happens, and you will be dead as you are meant to be," he promises.

Kikyou's resolve doesn't falter. She cocks her head and mocks him with her hollow eyes.

"A legend? A legend of destruction and hate, the very name people will come to fear. Is that what you want?" Kikyou asks.

"It is only inevitable," he says, challenging her confidence with his own.

Instead of continuing this spar, she turns around and heads for the exit. He holds up his hand to the demons that want to stop her and beat her down.

"If you become a legend with the jewel, I will make sure there is another chapter in your story, Naraku," she says, and then she turns around to meet his eyes. "You will be known as not only the monster that craves the jewel, but the demon that dies by my hands."

She smiles softly, and then turns away again. Kikyou disappears into the mist of the night, and Naraku clutches her gift in his hands tightly, idly wondering is power is worth such a legend if only death will come for him in the end.


	27. Deceitful Prey

AN: Written for the "Courage" claim at 30shards on LJ, as well as the "Close" prompt for iy themes on LJ. Rated R. 300 words.

Deceitful Prey

The fly buzzes around the web and tempts the spider.

The undead priestess lets the villain hold her in his arms, and she turns her head away from the sulfuric scent encasing her. His hands run up, down and over her body – cold and bruising and raw with ancient need and demand.

She's never thought she'd let him get this close to her. Letting this monster touch her seems inconceivable, and maybe to the Kikyou of several winters past this is more of a golden rule.

But Kikyou isn't like that woman anymore. Darkness eclipses her fleeting heart, and inside the clay workings of her body, she breathes borrowed time through revenge. This isn't about having the courage to stand his repulsive touch; this is about coming to an end, at any measure and any cost. Kikyou believes her heart to be dead, so Naraku's touch has come too late.

Naraku kisses the exposed pale flesh from under her kimono, and she closes her eyes and smirks when she realizes she's trapped him.

Like food dangling in front of the tiger, she knows Naraku can never win her devotion, but she can delude him. She can make him believe he has a chance, and if he thinks he can possess her, control her, and love and hate her as he chooses, then she is that much closer to finally killing him.

He grips her tightly and drags her flush against his chest, and his tongue hungrily slides around her face and breasts. His horrid touch becomes wilder, and he mangles her clothes into threads.

Kikyou laughs darkly as he growls against her ear. When she opens her legs and lets him inside, he whines satiated like he's won a great war.

Kikyou thinks _she's_ the one who wins this time.


	28. Grit of Winter

AN: Written for the "Advice" theme at 30shards and the "Betrayal" theme at iy_wiltedrose, both at Livejournal.

Grit of Winter

"Let me give you some advice," Tsubaki says with a grin that Kikyou doesn't like. The woman scrutinizes her with cold eyes – cold like deep winter; and Kikyou is prepared to ignore whatever Tsubaki tells her. Before the dark priestess speaks, Kikyou has deemed her words unusable, but she humors her anyway. "You'll fall in love, and it'll be your ruin. A miko has no right to love."

Whatever truth is in her words will fade away like hovering shadows. Kikyou scoffs. Who can love her?

She can't love the hanyou Inuyasha. Tsubaki's words, futile yet clingy, feel foreign.

Nothing will happen anyway. She won't let it come to that. Kikyou walks away, and Tsubaki's looming face and pointed words are pushed into the back of her mind.

--

Her heart dies that day, when blood pours out the wound in her shoulder and her little sister's screams and sobs are the last things she hears.

Betrayed – by the man she loves, the beast she is not supposed to fall for but slips into the ravine anyway.

Kikyou shuts her eyes and drops into the dark. At least, she thinks, love is sweet for the short time it exists.

--

She walks the earth on Mara's time, borrowed and fabricated for folly and temptation. Her real self dwells in Hell somewhere, choking on a paradox and streaming in limbo between herself and a stranger from the future.

The stranger steals the love that was meant for her, and Kikyou feels a rebirth and death of her heart again – the betrayal stinging with a different edge.

She is alone – more alone than before when she becomes guardian of the Shikon Jewel.

--

Everyone betrays everyone, in some way. It is not like her to be cynical, but Kikyou is no longer her true self. She sees the darkness ebb from every corner, from behind every lying gaze and wicked laugh.

In this respect, she realizes how much she's like Naraku. Inuyasha is long gone from her, and his longing is nothing more than denying the inevitable.

Naraku carries her to his castle. She gives him the pieces of the jewel, and he watches her with his hungry eyes. She thinks he's lying to her when he says his heart is elsewhere.

He's fooling her or fooling himself, and Kikyou hates the similarity between them, yet defeating him is still within her purpose. She cares not for Naraku's heart, pining away for her love like she once pined (still pines, maybe) for Inuyasha.

Still, reborn of darkness does not completely turn her into a monster. A sliver of her humanity lingers, and she gives her betrayer some honest advice.

"You will never have me, Naraku," she says – a promise, not a threat. Threats only exist at the swell of her power and the tip of her arrow. And she does not lie to him. False hope exists in his eyes, just as in Inuyasha's. Kikyou knows better not to give into either.

Naraku smiles, believing he knows better, that he will prove her wrong. Kikyou remains steadfast. As she begins to leave, Naraku lets her without interference.

Kikyou walks alone under the dark midnight sky. The air feels cold, and Kikyou knows that winter is coming. It reminds her of Tsubaki, of what she once said, and of things that can no longer be undone.

Like winter, everything will soon die and make way for things that are brand new. The dead rot and wilt away, leaving behind barely a trace of themselves, their past dying with their shells.

Kikyou's knows her true season is coming.

END


	29. The Messenger

AN: Spoilers for Chapter 409. Written for the "Note" theme at iy_wiltedrose and used for the "child" theme at 30shards on livejournal.

The Messenger

Nothing much scares Kikyou anymore. She's died before, and the world has transformed and moved on without her.

So it's odd when she feels a slight dread toward Naraku's incarnation, the white-haired monster that looks like a child. She comes to Kikyou unexpectedly; the moon is high that night with a ring of blood around it.

Kanna brings her a message. "Naraku gives you this."

She sets it on the ground because she knows Kikyou will not come to her. The undead priestess wouldn't dare touch her. Everything Naraku creates is an abomination, no matter how innocent the child appears. (And no matter how alike Kikyou is to an abomination herself.)

Kanna is gone before Kikyou's dark thoughts clear, and she looks at her present on the ground. With its amorphous shape, anything could be inside: from a love note to the heart of a child. Naraku is predictable that way.

She walks forward and crouches down, and when she senses very little miasma, she unfolds the ruffled cloth, shaped to fit a young boy.

Kikyou frowns when she realizes what it is, a piece of Kohaku's clothing, splattered with blood and aching with residual memory.

It's a warning. Naraku must know Kohaku is with her, and no matter how many souls she takes on, he reminds her that he's still after her. Soon he will take her life, as well as Kohaku's life. He will rip the shard from the boy's body and laugh when he dies, and Naraku will do it in the most theatrical and gruesome way.

Kikyou shudders and notices that it isn't Kanna's creepy child-like veneer that makes her agitated tonight.

She realizes she understands Naraku _too_ well, and no matter if she dies again, nothing else but knowing _that_ will give her such unease.


	30. Motivator

AN: Done for the "#11-Magic" theme for 30shards on LJ. This is my very last chapter of the Kikyou/Naraku claim! I hope you all enjoyed the ficlets. Thanks for reading!

- Paynesgrey

Motivator

Naraku takes his heart back. It slides back into his body, a conglomeration of magic and iniquity, and he welcomes it readily.

His heart thumps soundly in his chest; the cohesion between it and his body synchronizes magnificently as if it never left. In taking back his heart, he feels protected – invigorated, and he's only a motivated act away from dispelling its weakest part.

Kikyou.

She must feel her own doom looming over her. She's on the run, and Naraku is proud that he causes it. Kikyou still looks at him with such ferocity, and he tries not to think about how things will be when she's gone.

He will not miss her; he convinces himself, and he refuses to access that part of his heart any longer. He can no longer run from it. The separation between body and emotions is a risk; it makes him vulnerable in a way.

But he's stronger now; he won't let the weakness sway him any longer.

His desire bleeds into the shadows, and he no longer sees it at love. The lust has long been dispelled.

"You know you will die soon, Kikyou," Naraku says to her through Kanna's mirror. The white child says nothing, and Byakuya watches him with boredom.

Naraku laughs, and through residue from his spider webs, he feels Kikyou's pain, her sorrow. He admits, at least, he's going to miss that – her suffering for which he causes.

But he does not love her, not anymore, and he doubts he ever did. It's a silly spell, he thinks, bewitched by Kikyou herself, and soon, when he finally gets his hands on her, she'll never have the chance to entrap him again.

Her death will be beautiful, he muses. Naraku can't wait until he hears the screams of horror as he strips her holy light from this world once and for all.

END


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